Sherman’s March and America: Mapping Memory is designed as an experiment in digital history. Historian Anne Sarah Rubin is working on a project about the ways Americans have remembered Sherman’s March to the Sea in 1864, and wanted to bring her work to a broader audience. Rather than build an archive of documents, images, and essays, she decided to take a more interpretive approach, and this site is the result. A generous Digital Innovation Grant from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) allowed Dr. Rubin to collaborate with Dan Bailey and Kelley Bell (both of the UMBC Visual Arts Department and the Imaging Research Center). What we have here is a small prototype—a proof of concept for our larger vision.

Mapping Memory is organized around both place and narrative. It consists of five maps, each one representing a genre of tales about the March. They are:

The Sherman or Fact Map, which lays out the basic events of the march.

The Civilians Map, for events involving African-Americans and Southern civilians.

The Soldiers Map, for events told from the perspective of veterans

The Tourism Map, which is about tourism and travel accounts.

The Fiction Map, which plots places both real and imagined that have appeared in novels and films about the March

When you draw the time slider across the base of each map, two lines, schematically representing the left and right wings of Sherman’s Army move across the landscape. At the same time, an array of map pins, or points, also appears. These points mark spots of significance, and the idea is that you can toggle between the maps, and see how different people remembered or wrote about different places or events. Not every place appears on every map, but most of them are on two or three, and Atlanta, Savannah, and Milledgeville are on all five. Clicking on a point will bring up a window with a mini-documentary about that place, from the map’s perspective.

For now, we have only animated one point per map, although ideally we will receive funding to complete the stories for each and every point. We tried to pick a range of places and stories, and also use a variety of styles and techniques to illustrate them. The active points, which are highlighted, are:

Sherman Map—Ebenezer Creek: A place where one of Sherman’s Generals abandoned scores of African-Americans to drown or be captured by Confederates.

Civilians Map—Oxford: The story of Zora Fair, the “girl spy of the Confederacy”

Soldier’s Map—Milledgeville: Sherman’s men repealing secession in a mock session in the state capitol building.

Tourism—Camp Lawton: The story of the prison camp turned state park outside of Millen. (

I recently received a review copy of the National Geographic Atlas of the Civil War by Neil Kagan and Stephen G. Hyslop. Billed as A Comprehensive Guide to the Tactics and Terrain of Battle, this atlas presents a chronological account of the war using more than 80 archival maps as well as about three dozen original battle maps created using satellite data. The archival maps are not limited to those of battles and campaigns but include maps of rail lines, slave populations, fortifications, and more. The book is copiously illustrated with hundreds of photographs and drawings. Personally, I don’t have much use for comprehensive atlases, and find that when I do consult them I can usually find what I want in the Atlas to the Official Records and the West Point Atlas, and for detail you can’t beat the numerous online map collections. This National Geographic Atlas is a beautiful, glossy, coffee table book, more for the casual Civil War enthusiast or beginner, but full of tidbits of interest to all levels. Not a must have, but very nice for what it is.

Ted Savas tells me he is considering publishing softcover versions of the Atlas books – in addition to hardcovers – that will be spiral bound with coated pages. The book would come with a grease pencil that you could use to take notes on the map pages (say, in the field). The pages could be wiped clean later. Due to restrictions of the larger bookstores and Amazon on spiral bound volumes, this edition would be available only through Savas Beatie or the NPS bookstores. “Bundling” with the hardcover (that is, selling them both as a package) is also a possibility

That sounds pretty cool to me: what do you think?

Also, a tour guide was cut out from the Maps of First Bull Run, but will be made available on line. I don’t know if such is the intention for any other books in the series.

Author Brad Gottfried of the upcoming The Maps of First Bull Run was kind enough to take the time to respond to a few questions regarding the book and the Savas Beatie project in general.

What is the Savas Beatie Battlefield Atlas project, and how did you get involved?

The “Battlefield Atlas” project actually started with my Maps of Gettysburg book. I had written a book entitled, “The Brigades of Gettysburg” that highlighted the activities of every infantry brigade that participated in the battle. As a result of that book, I realized that the battle would be much more understandable if they had a series of good, accurate maps, accompanied by a descriptive text. After some thought, I came up with the idea of a map book, where the map is on the right page and the description is on the left. That book included over 140 maps and it has been well received. Since that time, Ted Savas has decided to broaden the concept and has signed up authors to do maps of other campaigns.

Why did you choose Bull Run as your second project?

I basically decided to prepare a book on every campaign in the Eastern Theatre of the Civil War, so it was natural that I go in order. I had been to the battlefield several times, but like so many others, really had trouble getting my arms around the swirl of events.

How does this book differ from your Gettysburg Atlas?

The book is similar to the Gettysburg Atlas with two exceptions. First, and perhaps most important, the maps are in color. This was one of the biggest criticisms of the Gettysburg volume. The second difference is the length of the book. The Gettysburg book ran 363 pages and contained about 140 maps; the new one on First Bull Run/Manassas, is 144 pages long and contains 51 maps. It also includes a section on Ball’s Bluff.

What were the particular challenges of doing a Bull Run Atlas?

I think that Gettysburg spoiled me. There are so many first-person accounts and so many analyses of what occurred there that I was able to get a much richer picture of what really happened. Less is written about First Bull Run/Manassas and there is much more ambiguity. Harry Smeltzer and Jim Burgess really helped me to sort out the fact from the fiction regarding the First Bull Run/Manassas campaign. Jim Morgan did the same for the Ball’s Bluff section.

Were there any surprises while writing this book?

Not really. I learned so much about the campaign. If I had to name some, it was how close General McDowell came to winning this battle and how lucky the Confederates were in moving units into position at just the right time. Most of us know about Stonewall Jackson’s gallant stand on Henry Hill, but I was surprised by how so many of his units were defeated at one time or another.

What’s up next for you in the series?

I will stop going in order now and concentrate on the most “popular” campaigns. Next up is the Maryland campaign. After that I may go back and work on the Second Manassas Campaign. That book will probably be double the size of the First Bull Run/Manassas book.

Ted Savas was good enough to provide me with one map and corresponding facing text. You can find the pdf file here. The pages will face, text on the left, map on the right. The map is lower res than what will be in the book. If you can’t open pdf files (you can get a pdf reader for free, just enter “free pdf reader” into a search engine), below are clickable thumbs of each page.

Again, you can register to be notified when this book becomes available here.

Last year Savas Beatieannounced that the second entry in its series of Civil War battle map studies would cover First Bull Run. I was involved in reviewing the manuscript, and today I received more information on the book from marketing director Sarah Keeney.

The Maps of First Bull Run: An Atlas of the First Bull Run (Manassas) Campaign, including the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, June-October 1861 (ISBN 978-1-932714-60-9), by Bradley M. Gottfried, is scheduled for release in May, 2009. The 7″ X 10″ hardcover will feature 51 full color maps with facing text and run 144 pages. It will retail for $34.95.

Anyone wishing to “reserve” a copy can do so here; register to be notified when the book is ready to ship.

In the coming weeks, I’ll have some specific content for you – including, hopefully, a sample map. Also look for my interview with the author.

Dulce bellum inexpertis

“I am sending you these little incidents as I hear them well authenticated. They form, to the friends of the parties, part of the history of the glorious 21st. More anon.”

About

Hello! I’m Harry Smeltzer and welcome to Bull Runnings, where you'll find my digital history project on the First Battle of Bull Run which is organized under the Bull Run Resources section. I'll also post my thoughts on the processes behind the project and commentary on the campaign, but pretty much all things Civil War are fair game. You'll only find musings on my “real job” or my personal life when they relate to this project. My mother always told me "never discuss politics or religion in mixed company”, and that's sound advice where current events are concerned.

The Project

This site is more than a blog. Bull Runnings also hosts digitized material pertaining to First Bull Run. In the Bull Run Resources link in the masthead and also listed below are links to Orders of Battle, After Action Reports, Official Correspondence, Biographical Sketches, Diaries, Letters, Memoirs, Newspaper Accounts and much, much more. Take some time to surf through the material. This is a work in process with no end in sight, so check back often!